A raucous group of Pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to disrupt a Jewish National Fund (JNF) event at the Johannesburg world environment conference today - but were finally stopped and thrown out by a contingent of the South African police.
Peleg Reshef, heading a large group of Jewish students attending the conference, told Arutz-7's Josh Hasten today that the PLO supporters had some bad luck: Hundreds of them showed up yesterday to disrupt the JNF event, but they had the wrong day, and only about 50 returned today. Reshef said that the JNF representatives were in the midst of preparing workshops for the international delegates when the disruptions began. Among the pro-Arab elements were Uri Davis - an Israeli author whose latest book is "Israel: An Apartheid State" - as well as Marwan Barghouti's lawyer.
Amos Hermon, chairman of the Jewish Agency's delegation in Johannesburg, said that the pro-Arab protestors did not make much trouble at first, but that they soon started yelling that Israel should stop its fascism, terrorism, and apartheid. "They use the term 'apartheid' frequently," he said, "in order to rile up the South African black community against Israel." The police arrived within a short time and forcefully removed the Arab sympathizers from the room.
Both Reshef and Hermon commended the South African government and police for their efforts to prevent the "Durbanization" of the conference - a reference to anti-Israel sentiment widely expressed at last year's racism conference held in Durban, South Africa. Hermon praised the students, saying that they "came prepared" and respond to "every single anti-Israel manifestation."
Peleg Reshef, heading a large group of Jewish students attending the conference, told Arutz-7's Josh Hasten today that the PLO supporters had some bad luck: Hundreds of them showed up yesterday to disrupt the JNF event, but they had the wrong day, and only about 50 returned today. Reshef said that the JNF representatives were in the midst of preparing workshops for the international delegates when the disruptions began. Among the pro-Arab elements were Uri Davis - an Israeli author whose latest book is "Israel: An Apartheid State" - as well as Marwan Barghouti's lawyer.
Amos Hermon, chairman of the Jewish Agency's delegation in Johannesburg, said that the pro-Arab protestors did not make much trouble at first, but that they soon started yelling that Israel should stop its fascism, terrorism, and apartheid. "They use the term 'apartheid' frequently," he said, "in order to rile up the South African black community against Israel." The police arrived within a short time and forcefully removed the Arab sympathizers from the room.
Both Reshef and Hermon commended the South African government and police for their efforts to prevent the "Durbanization" of the conference - a reference to anti-Israel sentiment widely expressed at last year's racism conference held in Durban, South Africa. Hermon praised the students, saying that they "came prepared" and respond to "every single anti-Israel manifestation."